Chapter 29

Rowan was lying in bed, running his hands through Astrid’s wild mass of curls on her head. They were a little tangled, but she seemed to enjoy the soft rubs against her scalp. She sighed contently and curled up against the crook between his shoulder and his chest.

An unfamiliar warmth accompanied the murmur of his very slow heartbeat. Is this what paradise felt like? This wonderful warm bubble where he could stay eternally. She was sleeping, her heartbeat steady, her breathing even. Everything else felt so far away.

In all of his 432 years, this was the only point that he could remember feeling so at peace with eternity. A whisper of guilt brushed against his skin as he looked down at the sleeping, peaceful Astrid.

How long would this last?